An Ode to Labwork

Taking an intermission on The Ranula Chronicles, here are some thoughts on a Tuesday…

A set up for another obturator and mandibular complete denture for a bilateral cleft palate

“I have the skill and dedication to eating sweets as my name Sara(h) Lee describes, but the hands of Michelangelo I have not…” - Me, trying to wax a tooth

I think it is pretty common for most anyone in the healthcare profession to spend more time at the office than at their actual homes.That’s definitely the case for me since pursuing dentistry, and then prosthodontics, as a career. I can joke that I’m clearly “winning” because I already have two homes. One home where I sleep and my other home, the lab.

Other than some of my personality quirks, the real reason why the lab is a frequent home base is because it is where I actually do most of my critical, deep-thinking. Although I don’t particularly want to always be in a 3x4 (feet, sorry metric friends), the lab bench is a place for reflection and contemplation because this is where I can separate myself from external distractions, go into my little prosthodontics “mind palace” (kudos for those who get the reference), and learn the most about the intricacies of a patient’s case.

We are fortunate to have great lab technicians who can help us with a lot of the workload with oral prosthetics but with maxillofacial cases, sometimes [many times] I have to put my big girl pants on, say "see you later nice weather”, and go into the cave [lab] and figure things out myself.

You hit a level of craziness in the lab… Team left shark.

It’s a love-hate relationship to be honest. But, at the end of the day, I have teeth for a patient with an unrepaired bilateral cleft palate with telescopic crowns and give back a smile and a bite in less than an hour of his/her time.

Although I don’t necessarily shy away from being honest with maxillofacial patients about the complexity of their care, I do strive to give them the sense of feeling like treatment and care can maybe be simply, not too preoccupying or demanding of their time and effort. I sometimes am apologetic when I struggle with figuring out and providing treatment because, for these individuals, they’ve already been through so much.

So, this is why lab work holds a special place in my heart…. and schedule.

This post’s lesson: Always press the “save” button while saving a blogpost so you aren’t like me and had to rewrite it again because you accidentally pressed the wrong key. Talking about time, geez.